Chapter 12. Behaviors and Parent Scripts

The term Behavior is used loosely to describe several different types of Lingo scripts. For now, think of Behaviors as score scripts that are easy to customize, even by novices. Macromedia provides a slew of Behaviors under XtrasBehavior Library. Refer to the Behaviors Show Me demo movie in the online Help to learn the basics of applying existing Behaviors. See Chapter 5, Creating Interactivity, in Macromedia’s Using Director manual for an overview of the available Behaviors. Macromedia also provides numerous widgets (premade UI components) and buttons that use Behaviors to create sprites with complex functionality. See XtrasWidget WizardWidget Wizard and XtrasWidget WizardButton Library. Refer to Chapter 14, Graphical User Interface Components, in Director in a Nutshell for a detailed example of using premade widgets and Behaviors.

Tip

The Lingo Behavior Database is a collection of Behaviors maintained by Renfield Kuroda at http://www.behaviors.com/lbd/.

Search the Macromedia site for Technote 08140 for possible ways to distribute protected Behaviors. Refer to the downloadable examples (http://www.zeusprod.com/nutshell/examples.html) for a detailed Behavior that simulates the Tempo channel for use in Shockwave (which doesn’t obey the Tempo settings).

What Is a Behavior?

The simplest (non-configurable) Behaviors are exactly like Director 5-style score scripts attached to either a sprite or the script channel. To add a “beep-when-clicked” ...

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